New AI camera that caught out 27,000 drivers is being rolled out on major UK motorway for first time

The Sun reports that Acusensus AI cameras, already used in parts of the West Midlands and trialled in Devon and Cornwall, will be installed on the M5 for the first time. The headline's figure of 27,000 drivers adds a count of drivers to a count of offences, which may overstate how many people were caught. Otherwise nothing in the piece misleads.

1. Uses figures that mislead

   Minor

   “caught out 27,000 drivers”

   Why this matters

   The Sun's headline gives a single total of 27,000 drivers caught out.

   The impression it gives

   A reader believes 27,000 separate drivers have been confirmed as breaking the law by these cameras.

   The context

   The body gives two different measures. It says 19,000 drivers were caught in the West Midlands, and it gives 8,500 offences, not drivers, in Devon and Cornwall. One driver can commit more than one offence, so adding offences to drivers can overstate the number of people caught. The article also says the photographs are analysed by human operators, so a detection is not yet a confirmed offence.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“caught out a total of 19,000 drivers in just a fortnight”
   • Elsewhere in the article“detecting more than 8,500 offences”
   • Elsewhere in the article“snap a photograph to be analysed by human operators”

   Show it in the article